DeFrosted

Chapter 15

(Kristoff )

Several days past in the company of this 'Delilah' woman. It felt like miserable agony, immobilized in a bed when I knew Anna was out there. I tried to move but with little success as Delilah who was much stronger then she looked, forced me back down.

"You are so close to being healed, you will not ruin my months of work by just a few days! Now if you wish to heal properly, lay down or I will tie you down!" She cried out, pushing me back onto the bed.

So I did, then she explained how her mother was a healer and how she knew of such things.

But shortly after, that feeling of worry turned to fear. I didn't know if she was still alive, had she survived the siege? Had the country been taken? Was she now a wife to some barbarian usurper? What had happened to Arendale? I had begged these questions of my carer, but she herself simply could not answer them.

"What happened to the crown princess of Arendale?!? Is she ok? What happened to her I MUST KNOW!" I cried. "Calm down Kristoff!" She ordered, slapping a cold rag onto my face. "I cannot be calm, I have to know what happened to my Anna!" I argued, pulling the thing off my face.

She snatched the rag out out my hands and began dabbing it against my neck. "Your Anna?" She asked in puzzlement. "Yes my Anna, princess of Arendale, my courtier, my sweetheart... I must know what happened to her!"

She sucked in a breath, as if my words stung her. "Oh....your woman." She sighed. "Yes, yes! Now do you know what happened to her?" I asked frantically. "No I do not what has become of your princess, but if the knowledge troubles you, I shall ask of her when I make my delivery to the city at the end of the week." She promised.

Delivery? I had puzzled? Delivering what? And the next day, I got my answer. In the mornings she would set out, ax in hand and chop down the tall slim trees in the forest at the foot of the cabin. I was awestruck gazing out the window and watching her work in the distance. I couldn't believe it, a woman woodsmen. So that's how she was so strong. She hacked down trees swinging an ax so broad it could match a Vikings, then she would cut the trees into three smaller sections and carry them to a large cart and toss them onto the back of it.

Just the effort to watch her would cause me to drift off to sleep, waking up to the smell of her mouthwatering cooking.

Soon she said I was well enough to sit up, and helped me prop myself up against the headboard and I was 'allowed' to feed myself. She'd sit beside me and we'd talk the rest of the day, until sleep once again lulled into me.

"My father was a woodsmen, and I was the only child my parents could conceive. So naturally, without a son I learned the trade." She explained one afternoon over fried robin eggs.

"And you live up here all by yourself? Why do you not move to the village? Or find a husband?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I like it up here, it's quiet and peaceful, and Iv no time for a husband. Plus I was never one for the crowded city. All those people hustling about everywhere, the air clouded with smoke, and the noise, so much noise. You can't even hear yourself think."

"I'll second that." I replied. As much as I cared for Anna I didn't much care for her city life. "It's nice to meet someone who finally understands how fulfilling the wilderness can be." I Chuckled, But that quiet chuckle quickly turned into a loud belch.

"I'm terribly sorry!" I apologized, slapping my hand over my mouth in embarrassment. Anna and her sister simply hated when I did that. Elsa had told me on several occasions that it was "unbecoming of a gentleman."

"Anna absolutely hates..." I started to explain before being cut of by a loud long belch from Delilah. "I'm not Anna." She laughed loudly, throwing back her head. She so different to Anna. A mountain woman instead of a princess. She arm wrestled, propped her feet on the table, made dirty jokes and cooked with to much grease, because she didn't care about if it was 'bad for her waistline' and occasionally she snorted when she laughed.